This disclosure relates generally to the field of computer networks, and more specifically to searching for information in computer networks.
Users may locate information pertaining to a particular subject by searching a network (which may be the Internet or an intranet) of web pages (or pages) that are stored on one or more computers in the network for specific keywords. The keyword search returns search results, including a set of pages that contain the keywords. The user may then browse the pages in the search results to determine a particular relevant page that contains the information desired by the user. Once a relevant page is identified, the user may desire more detailed information on the searched subject, or a broader overview that can give context for the information in the relevant page. However, going back to the search results may not accomplish this goal, since search results do not include awareness of the scope of other pages returned in the search results, especially relative to a particular page the user is currently considering.
Web pages may be organized into a hierarchy to give information regarding the relationships between pages included in the hierarchy. A hierarchy may define relationships between pages from a single domain, or may cross multiple domains. Some solutions for relating pages in a hierarchy, such as parent links, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) maps, or breadcrumb links, may limit relationships to those predefined by the author of the hierarchy. In cases where a search returns results from multiple different hierarchies, hierarchical relationships between pages in the different hierarchies may not be available. The content in a page may be tagged with, for example, a content type or a subject type that identifies the information in the page as an overview (either an overview page, for content typing, or an overview of a particular subject, for subject tagging), but this does not allow for arbitrary levels of hierarchy, in which one person's overview may be another person's details, depending on the scope of their search, and requires specialized tagging by an author or classifier.